Spokane7
50°
May 21, 2010 in City
Reclaimed pot package leads to arrest
A suspicious-smelling package that caught a local mail worker’s attention this month turned out to be a pound of marijuana bound for Missouri.
Now a 20-year-old Spokane man is facing a felony drug charge after falling for a ruse arranged by the Spokane County Regional Drug Task Force.
The suspect, Johnathon A. Delay, was arrested this week after Spokane police Officer Rich Meyer posed as a UPS employee over the phone and persuaded him to meet at a UPS store to file a claim for a missing package.
Turns out Meyer actually had the package. A United Parcel Service employee gave it to him May 4 after the UPS worker “smelled the strong odor of marijuana,” according to a search warrant. Inside was a pound of marijuana – valued at $3,000 – in vacuum-sealed bag.
The package was to be sent to Springfield, Mo. Delay listed himself as the sender but altered two letters in his last name. He also listed an address in the 6600 block of North Normandie and included his cell phone number.
A UPS employee identified Delay through a photo as the man who sent the package.
A sheriff’s deputy watching Delay’s home at 819 E. 37th Ave. followed him as he drove to meet Meyer on Wednesday. He was arrested near 44th Avenue and Regal Street.
Delay was released from jail on his own recognizance Thursday after appearing in Superior Court on a felony charge of delivery of a controlled substance.
A phone number listed in court documents for him wasn’t accepting messages Friday. On Thursday, a detective pulled records off Delay’s mobile phone after a photo of a woman holding marijuana appeared when it rang. Authorities are looking for clues about local drug distribution and about who in Missouri may have been set to receive the marijuana.
Human trafficking suspects released 
lewis8457 on May 21 at 9:44 p.m.
what a moron, he deserved to get caught…….
flutieflakes on May 21 at 9:59 p.m.
I agree, who the hell tries to put a pound of weed through the mail? He must have been smoking too much of it.
JBlim on May 21 at 10:04 p.m.
Your tax dollars at work. Go catch some real criminals, guys.
SugarShane on May 21 at 10:29 p.m.
See we do need to build a new jail. NOT!
Support I-1068
http://www.wamjlawreform.com/2010/02/i-1068-needs-you.html
Its only worth 3000 because its illegal, there are even law enforcement that are against prohibition, check it out. Its time to end the warlike violence that we saw during alcohol prohibition.
http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php
If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so. ~ Thomas Jefferson
And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good..
~ The Lord ~ Gen 1:12
Scoutster on May 22 at 7:22 a.m.
What a waste of public effort, but once the cat was out of the bag, it had to be pursued.
Cops were just doing their job, but the policy is stupid.
Cougardave on May 22 at 9:46 a.m.
I know…… We should send him to Mexico without any papers.
mikeln on May 22 at 12:12 p.m.
How many thousands of our tax dollors will be spent prosecuting just this one person for a non-crime? Multiply that by thousands of people each year arrested for this non-crime and the amounts are probably stagering. Time to quit doing the same-o, same-o, and really address the drug problem in this country instead of what is being done now, which has done nothing but caused misery and cost trillions of dollers. It is time to end the war on sick americans. This so called war was started under the ploy of makeing us safer, instead, it has made our world a more dangerous place to live, what stupidity.
opiemuyo on May 22 at 1:54 p.m.
And they say marijuana doesn’t kill brain cells, LOL!
misjustice on May 22 at 2:22 p.m.
Stoopid is as stoopid does!
lewis8457 on May 24 at 6:42 a.m.
One very bright point in this. We do have a honest cop on the force. The cop could have just sold it or smoked it and no one would have known.